The only thing I've ever heard of a fish being injured by a UG filter is a betta somehow got under it. Other than that I haven't personally heard anything.

That would suck majorly. I always make sure there is a good bed of gravel when I'm using a UGF for that reason. :/

CB, all filters encourage bacteria buildup, it's part of the cycle of a tank. And just because a person won an award for the look of his fish, that doesn't necessarily mean that they know everything. And there is a lot more that goes into tank care (as you well know) than JUST what kind of filter you use. To his credit, he's found a method that works for him, and took it and ran with it. That's what we, as fish keepers, do. We learn what works best with what we have, and we go with it. It's about constantly learning more about our fish, and how to take care of them, and what they need, and what they like and dislike. There's no need to be rude like that, saying things like "He is more *experienced in his field than you will ever be in his field." Uh, yeah, if we never get into guppies, then he will ALWAYS be more experienced with them than we are. But we don't base our personal decisions and what we know solely on one book's information. We base them on the knowledge we gain on the way, by our own experiences, and also from other people's experiences that get shared with us in places like this.

Well, I'd be interested to know what his water parameters were. How did he decide it was the UGF causing the problem?

Chocolate, considering the show standards and ideals for bettas have led us to halfmoon mania, despite the fact that the fish can hardly swim sometimes and have trouble even mating, I am not going to take a show breeder's word as Gospel. Frankly, I think animals shows destroy beautiful creatures.

I absolutely agree with you, NorthernLights. The more attention any animal gets for it's beauty can ultimately harm them. (Taking our beautiful bettas for example, and how popular they are for their beauty, with all of the misconceptions on how to care for them). And not only that, but sometimes what you see in an animal show is not always how the animal is treated behind the scenes (sadly).